Originally Posted by
Special K
I have been watching this thread for a couple of days now... and it most reminds me of when I used to deer hunt on state wildlife land where anyone who was a legally licensed hunter could have a place to hunt without all of the anxiety of finding and securing private land to hunt on. I remember many times getting to the tree stand thirty minutes to an hour before sunrise only to see another hunter within 75 yards of me a couple of hours after full light. Well, it's just the price I paid for hunting public land is the way I always figured it... as much as it might have aggravated me to have invested that time only to find that it was a total waste of time. The same held true many times when a four wheeler would come through (what I called) (my hunt) an hour after daylight and come back through within only an hour or so after he went in.
Yes, it's no doubt annoying and aggravating to say the least... but the bottom line is... that's the price I paid for hunting public land where any and everyone had access... to exploit the same right to be there as what I had. I also remember another time that I went to (what I called my stand) for an afternoon and evening hunt... only to find someone sitting in my portable tree stand that I put there a day or so earlier. He was (of course) gracious enough to gladly surrender the spot when I confronted him (as he surely should have)... and was very friendly and sorry about it... but (then) he (only) settled in on the ground less than 80 yards away from me (upwind) after walking through the entire hunt to get there. What are you going to do?
My late dad (rest his soul) might have said it best when he said: "If a deer hunter had five hundred acres of land to hunt by himself... he'd be sitting on the edge of it looking over as much of the adjoining land as could... only because he felt like he was covering more ground." Similarly, he also said, "A bank fisherman will stand on the bank and cast just as far as he can throw out into the lake... to cover all the ground he can cover.... while a boat fisherman will spend huge amount of $$$$ on the fanciest boat he can afford and all of the gear he thinks he might need... only to fish as close to the bank as he can." Go figure!!!
I reckon the moral to the story is: It's human nature to complain about something or another all the time no matter what. More power to the ones that put out structure and work the hardest to ply the great sport of fishing... but to be sure you are smart enough to know that the short cutters are everywhere and they live to exploit the hard work of others (in every way they can) to their own advantage.
Is this really such a news flash or as difficult a question as this thread is trying to make it out to be???? I'm sorry, but I don't see the surprise.